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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



LIFTING THE LATCH 



Lifting the Latch 



An Hour with the Twenty- 
Third Psalm 



"By 



ELIJAH P. BROWN, D. D 

Founder of the Ram's Horn, author of 
''From Nowhere to Beulahland/' 
"Rounds in the Golden Lad- 
der/' "The Raven and 
the Chariot," etc. 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEWYORK: EATON AND MAINS 



fuBh'ARY of CONGRESS 

I I wo Coules Hacelved 

AU6 23 190/ 

% Copyrieht Entry 

I cuss A XXC, No. 

I COPY a. 



Copyright, 1907, 
By Jennings and Graham 



1 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Coming to the Door, - - - 9 

II. Lifting the Latch, - - - 21 

III. The Door Wide Open, - - 35 

IV. A Transformation Scene, - 45 

V. A Feast and^ Fountain, - - 61 
VI. A Glorious View, - - - 76 



LIFTING THE LATCH 



Chapter I. 

COMING TO THE DOOR. 

In the South are powerful com- 
presses, into which bales of cotton are 
reduced to only a small part of their 
former bulk ; and it seems to me that 
something similar has been done with 
this wonderful Psalm, as if the whole 
Bible had been compressed into a few 
lines; for there is nothing that the 
soul needs, in the way of promise or 
experience, that it does not contain. 
No matter what our situation or con- 
dition in life may be, this psalm is a 
never- failing source of comfort and 
inspiration. It is a veritable diamond 
mine filled with precious jewels, to 
which we may help ourselves and be 
made rich, 

9 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

Somebody has called it the night- 
ingale of the Psalms, and it surely is 
that, for it sings in the night. There 
are song birds that sing only in the 
sunshine, but the Twenty-third 
Psalm never hangs its head in the day 
of misfortune and affliction. Indeed, 
its most sunny song is the one it sings 
for us in our blackest night. No 
darkness can hush its notes of sweet- 
ness and comfort. No trouble can 
silence its blessed melody of cheer; 
for even in the valley of the shadow 
of death it sings with an angel voice, 
to sustain, encourage, and fill us with 
confidence and hope. Indeed, it sings 
the loudest and the sweetest when the 
darkness is the deepest and the gloom 
is the thickest. 

It is not surprising that David's 
music could drive the evil spirit out 
of King Saul, when he could sing for 
him such songs as this, for it is still 
driving out evil spirits by the legion 
all over the world. There is so much 

10 



COMING TO THE DOOR 

of joy and hope, and strong confi- 
dence in God, that no evil spirit can 
long remain in the same house with 
it. When this song is sung in every 
heart, the millennium will be at full 
dawn. 

Children learn the Twenty-third 
Psalm, and old people never forget 
it. It is a continual source of inspi- 
ration to the living, and a never- fail- 
ing comfort to the dying. When the 
health and the property and the loved 
ones are taken away, this blessed 
Psalm remains to sustain, cheer, and 
encourage. It turns our eyes in the 
right direction to see that we have 
much more left than we have lost. 
Every trial and every trouble fills its 
golden words with brighter meaning. 
It gives us beauty for ashes, and the 
oil of joy for mourning. It tells us 
that, although weeping may endure 
for a night, joy is certain to come in 
the morning. 

Rich, indeed, is the fortunate man 
11 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

who has this miracle-working Psalm 
hidden in his heart. It will be a key 
of hope in his bosom to milock the 
door of every prison. In time of 
hunger it will be bread to him hke 
that of the father's house, and it will 
quench his thirst like water from the 
old well of Bethlehem. 

It may have been the Twenty-third 
Psalm that Paul and Silas were sing- 
ing in the dungeon at midnight, when 
the walls of the old prison at Philippi 
were almost shaken down; for no 
prison walls can long stand against 
the heart that is joyfully and hope- 
fully singing this wonderful song of 
God. It makes the present endur- 
able and the future glorious in hope. 
It tells us that if David could have 
the Lord for his Shepherd, we may 
also have Him as a very present help 
in every time of need. 

I do n't believe that David was in 
clover up to his knees at the time he 
wrote this Psalm, for the reason that 

12 



COMING TO THE DOOR 

faith never speaks out as he did, so 
long as there is a blade of grass in 
sight. We are not apt to trust much 
beyond our conscious need. We are 
like the little girl who said : 

''I do n't have to pray any more 
that I won't get the scarlet fever, be- 
cause I Ve got a sulphur bag on my 
neck." 

We first trust in everything under 
the sun in which we can trust, and 
then, as a last resort, we trust in God. 
During a storm at sea a frightened 
woman ran to the captain and cried 
out in terror: 

"Captain, are w^e going to be lost? 
Are we going to be lost?" 

''We must do our best and trust in 
God," was the captain's reply. 

"O dear!" exclaimed the woman; 
''has it come to that?" 

No man ever takes the Lord for 
his Shepherd as long as he is able to 
find any kind of a pasture for him- 
self. When David took the Lord for 

13 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

his Shepherd, it must have been at 
a time when it was about the only 
thing he could do ; at a time when he 
realized that he had made a wretched 
failure of life; or at a time, perhaps, 
when he had been doing something 
foolish, imprudent, or sinful. It 
may have been when he had just been 
making one of the greatest mistakes 
of his life, or when all his props 
seemed to have been knocked from 
under him, and all his plans appeared 
to have come to naught. 

David was a thoughtful man, 
much given to meditation, and a very 
close observer of himself. Whenever 
he did a wrong or unwise thing, he 
would soon be trying to discover what 
it was that had made him do it. Per- 
haps on a day when he was greatly 
mortified over some of his misdoings, 
he may have said to himself: 

"I am just like a sheep. A sheep 
will go astray when it has no earthly 
reason for doing it, and it is just that 

14 



COMING TO THE DOOR 

way with me. I am as foolish and 
shortsighted as a sheep." 

A sheep is the symbol of helpless 
foolishness, and as David thought 
over his life, with its mistakes and 
failures, he would . have naturally 
thought of a sheep and his own re- 
semblance to it, and this would bring 
him to where he would keenly feel 
his need of a shepherd. 

David had been a shepherd him- 
self, and knew the meaning of the 
word as no other could. But for this 
he M^ould never have thought of hav- 
ing the Lord for his Shepherd. This, 
of itself, more than repaid him for 
all the years of toil and hardship he 
had spent in caring for his flock. 
This shows how some of our hardest 
experiences may be great blessings 
in disguise. The fellowship we may 
have with Christ through having 
been born in a home of poverty may 
be to us a richer heritage than the 
millionaire's gold. 

15 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

To have the privilege of living in 
a world like this, gives us a great ad- 
vantage over the angels; for every 
experience in this life is a step in the 
golden stairway over which we may 
mount up to God, and every trial a 
window that may some day open to- 
ward Him, What we undergo here 
is the gold we borrow from the 
Egyptians to put into the tabernacle 
of the Lord. Our afflictions, misfor- 
tunes, and disappointments ; our suc- 
cesses, victories, and triumphs; our 
tears, our smiles, and our frights, and 
in fact all our experiences and rela- 
tionships, help us to know God as we 
never could do without them, and 
knowledge of God can never be too 
dear at any price. 

It was because David knew sheep 
so well that he could know God so 
well. The work of caring for his 
flock may have seemed little more 
than hard and thankless drudgery 
while it was being done ; but the try- 

16 



COMING TO THE DOOR 

ing experience was M^orth all it cost, 
for it qualified him to walk with God 
as he never could have done without 
it. 

David did not say "The Lord is 
my Shepherd" when his sky was 
bright and no want in sight. He did 
not say it when every man who ran 
toward the throne was the bearer of 
good tidings, for he could not have 
felt the need of a shepherd then. It 
must have been at some such time 
as he describes in saying: 

''Consider mine enemies, for they 
are many, and hate me with cruel 
hatred. . . • The sorrows of death 
compassed me about, and the floods 
of ungodly men made me afraid. 
. . • My sore ran in the night. 

In a time of such extremity it is 
not hard for the heart to trust; and 
this is why I do not think that it 
could have been on a day like that 
when David danced before the ark 
of God, that he took the Lord for 
2 17 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

his Shepherd. All about him was 
dark and desolate, but the moment 
his faith said, "The Lord is my Shep- 
herd/' he touched the button that 
turned on the electric light, and all 
the rest of the Psalm is what the light 
revealed to him. 

I call your attention to the fact 
that David's declaration was a defi- 
nite act of faith, by which he touched 
God in a new way, and all that fol- 
lows is simply the experience that 
grew out of that single act of faith. 
The first sentence was the lifting of 
the latch, and the remainder of the 
Psalm the beautiful garden into 
which the door opened. Much faith 
always results in much experience. 
The poor woman put out her trem- 
bling hand and touched the robe of 
Jesus, and health and strength were 
the resultant experience. Without 
that touch of faith her experience 
would have continued to be that of a 
helpless invalid. It was the same with 

18 



COMING TO THE DOOR 

David. Taking the Lord for his 
Shepherd was his touch of faith, and 
the green pastures and other good 
things were the resultant experience. 
Had not David begun as he did, he 
could not have said, ''I will dwell in 
the house of the Lord forever." He 
had come to the gate and entered by 
faith before he could know what was 
bevond it. 

Notice also that David got peace 
before he got pasture, and was rested 
before he was feasted. To know the 
meaning of rest we must first have 
the faith to trust. We must say, 
"The Lord is my Shepherd," before 
we can know anything about the still 
waters and green pastures. Contrast 
with this: ''And he would fain have 
filled his belly with the husks that the 
swine did eat, and no man gave unto 
him." 

The man who journeys in a certain 
direction meets with something quite 
different from what he would have 

19 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

encountered had he taken any other 
course; and the journeys which we 
make in our Christian life are no ex- 
ception to this rule. Whenever our 
faith appropriates God in a new way, 
we set out upon a spiritual journey 
unlike any ever undertaken before, 
and every day will be filled with ex- 
periences we should never have 
known had we not passed through 
the door of that particular way. 



20 



Chapter II. 
LIFTING THE LATCH. 

"The Lord is my Shepherd" is the 
door through which the sheep goes 
to the green pastures, and it never 
gets there by any other way. The 
first sentence is the Hfting of the 
latch that opens the gate, and all that 
follows is a description of what the 
gate opens into. Or, to look at it 
in a more modern way: Saying "The 
Lord is my Shepherd" is the step 
that puts us on the train, and the 
remainder of the Psalm is the coun- 
try through which the train carries 
us. And what a delightful country 
it is! Certainly there is no lack of 
beauty and variety. 

Before David could say "The 
21 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

Lord is my Shepherd/' he had to be 
willing for the Lord to say, "This is 
My sheep." There can be no large 
appropriation of God until we are 
willing for God to have complete 
ownership of us; but when we once 
fairly reach the place where we are 
willing to give all, we soon get all. 

As soon as David said, "The Lord 
is my Shepherd/' he had rest; and 
this is always the first reward of 
trust. His rest is clearly indicated 
by the words, "I shall not want." 
His anxiety was all gone, and yet 
there had been no change in his cir- 
cumstances. He w^as just as hungry 
and weary and torn and bruised as 
before, but he had a Shepherd now, 
and was not anxious about the pas- 
ture. 

David knew only too well, from 
his own experience as a shepherd, 
that no sheep with a good shepherd 
could long be in need of anything, 
and so the moment his faith said, 

22 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

''The Lord is my Shepherd," he could 
also say, with great confidence, ''I 
shall not want." He remembered 
how he had cared for his own sheep, 
and knew each one by name. He 
could not forget that the one most 
prone to wander was the one for 
which he had done the most. He 
sometimes forgot the others, but 
never that wayw^ard sheep. It was 
the last in his thought at night, and 
the first in the morning. He must 
always make sure that it was safe be- 
fore he could sleep. Often had he 
gone out to seek for it until he found 
it, and then how gladly had he taken 
it home! No w^onder he could so 
quietly say, "I shall not want." 
There was no uncertainty about w^hat 
God w^ould do as soon as he remem- 
bered what he himself had done. 

Notice the language, ''The Lord 
is my Shepherd." First person, 
singular number; present tense. 
God loves to have us draw on Him 

23 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

at sight, and do it in big figures. He 
is able to pay spot cash, and does not 
ask us to take His ninety-day note. 

Had David said, "The Lord will 
be my Shepherd," that would have 
been the last of him, so far as this 
Psalm is concerned; and that is the 
reason so many of our lives are like 
worn-out cistern pumps. We need 
a faith that will take hold of God 
to-day, and trust Him to be what we 
need now, as Jacob took hold of the 
angel. A man in the army had a 
musket with a lock so rusty that it 
took all his strength to pull the 
trigger, and made a sure aim impos- 
sible. A hang-fire faith is not much 
better than no faith at all. It takes 
boiling water to make steam, and a 
hot faith to prevail with God. 

It is that little word is that makes 
things go, and keeps them going, in 
every fruitful Christian life. In go- 
ing through a large carriage manu- 
factory some time ago, I noticed that 

24 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

everything on wheels was marked 
''The Izzer Brand." I wish we had 
more Izzer Brand Christians. 

That little w^ord "my" shows that 
David had a faith that had teeth, for 
it was able to take a tight grip and 
hold on in a definite way. Had he 
said, "The Lord is our Shepherd," he 
would have been like a man filling out 
a check with ciphers instead of fig- 
ures. A man whose need was great, 
and whose faith was being sorely 
tried, was told by a friend to raise 
a commotion in heaven on his own 
account, by telling the Lord that he 
must have His help, and have it 
quick. He got it. That is what 
David did with that little word "my." 
Try it for yourself, and see how 
quick it will get you out of trouble. 

Everything good in Christian ex- 
perience is the result of trusting God 
in some particular way. I have seen 
a child put its hand in its father's 
and walk by his side, and I have seen 

25 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

another put itself in his arms and be 
carried, and each had a different ex- 
perience. 

When David said, ''The Lord is 
my Shepherd," he made a sight draft 
on the Lord for all that a sheep could 
ever need, and the fact that God 
promptly honored his draft should 
encourage us to do the same thing 
whenever a famine of any kind comes 
in sight. A sheep's trust immediately 
gave him a sheep's rest, and he soon 
found himself in a sheep's heaven. 

David was in a desert at the time 
he said, "The Lord is my Shepherd;" 
but soon after he did say it he was 
where the rich, tender grass was 
higher than his head. ''O that men 
would praise the Lord for His good- 
ness, and for His wonderful works 
to the children of men ! For He sat- 
isfieth the longing soul and fiUeth the 
hungry soul with goodness." 

"He maketh me to lie down in 
green pastures," is as complete a pic- 

26 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

ture of abundant satisfaction as it is 
possible for words to make. The 
hunger is gone, and the supply within 
easy reach is beyond all possible need. 
From having had sheep of my own, 
I know that when a sheep is lying 
down in a green pasture it is either 
satisfied or sick, one or the other. As 
long as a healthy sheep has the 
slightest hunger it will be up and try- 
ing to satisfy it. To say that the 
sheep is lying down in green pastures, 
means that every want has been 
abundantly satisfied and its future 
need well provided for. 

If we would only take the Lord 
for our Shepherd, as David did, how 
much better w^e would fare than by 
anything we can do for ourselves! 

"Green pastures." These are the 
very best, and when God gives, He 
always gives the best. This world 
has nothing to offer that can begin 
to compare with the green pastures 
into which the Good Shepherd leads 

27 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

His flock. The sheep has no anxiety 
about the permanence or durabiHty 
of the green pastures. It has made 
the best of them, and is now quietly 
taking its rest there, without a single 
anxious thought. When we take our 
burdens to the Lord, we should leave 
them there. 

The man who undertakes to lie 
down in the green pastures of wealth, 
station, or fame, never gets any rest 
there. All such pastures are only in 
imagination, and fade before they 
can satisfy. You can not give a man 
money enough to make him con- 
tented and happy. The more he gets 
the more he wants; but not so with 
God's green pastures. They always 
satisfy. And then it is not a green 
pasture, but green pastures ; there are 
many of them, and there is only one 
of me. 

There are pastures of all kinds; 
good, bad, and indifferent; and a 
sheep will manage to get along some- 

28 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

how in any kind of a pasture; but 
there are pastures in which it will not 
do well. Through misunderstanding, 
a hired man once turned a flock of 
my sheep into a large blackberry 
patch, and they were there some days 
before I discovered what had been 
done. The sheep had browsed those 
blackberry bushes clear down to the 
ground, but they did n't take on any 
fat while there. The Lord's sheep 
sometimes get into very poor pas- 
tures, but it is only w^hen they go 
astray and fail to follow the Good 
Shepherd. 

"He maketh me to He down in 
green pastures." If God didn't 
want us to know how ready and will- 
ing He is to do great things for us, 
He would never have allowed this 
Psalm to go into the Bible. The fact 
that He so graciously honored Da- 
vid's faith, shows that He will just 
as readily honor our faith, if it is the 
same kind of faith that David had. 

29 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

What a beautiful picture of satis- 
faction and abundance! What a 
striking example of great need and 
prompt help ! The sheep is satisfied, 
and yet has abundance all about it 
within easy reach. For a contrasting 
picture, remember that ''the young 
lions do lack and suffer hunger/' and 
yet we all want to be young lions. 

"Green pastures," not dry fodder. 
God always gives the best whenever 
He has a chance, but sometimes we 
limit Him with our little faith. An 
evangelist told me he could never 
take a vacation to get the rest he 
needed, because it took all that he 
could get in free-will offerings, by 
working constantly, to support his 
family. I said: 

"Whj^ do n't you ask the Lord to 
raise your pay? He will do it." 

When I met him a year or two 
later, he told me it had been done. 

There is no danger of asking too 
largely if we do it in faith. 

30 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

"Let thy soul delight itself in fat- 
ness," was not put in the Bible simply 
to fill up. ''Delight thyself also in 
the Lord, and He shall give thee the 
desires of thine heart," is more than 
poetry. Meet the conditions, and it 
will give you a trip to Europe, if you 
want it. 

There is plenty of good pasture 
for all good sheep, and it is no part 
of the sheep's business to try to find 
the pasture for itself. That is the 
shepherd's work. While one pasture 
is being consumed He is preparing 
another, and in due time will lead us 
to it. So do not worry if the picking 
happens to be a little close to-day. It 
will be better to-morrow. 

To have a good time in this life we 
must learn to live it one day at a 
time, and leave all the future days to 
Him who said, ''Sufficient unto the 
day is the evil thereof." Do not let 
any more trouble come into this day 
than properly belongs to it. It is 

31 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

the cares of to-morrow, and next 
week, and next year, that make us 
grow old before our time. "Cast thy 
burden upon the Lord, and He shall 
sustain thee." Believe it and do it. 

If supplies are running short, do 
the best you can to provide for your 
necessities, but do it hopefully and 
trustfully. Do n't worry. Do n't 
borrow trouble. Count on good 
things, and you will have the joy of 
expectancy anyhow. Review your 
life, and you will find that your dark 
forebodings have seldom been real- 
ized, while much good fortune that 
you didn't expect has come to you. 
So thank God and take courage, and 
look for good thinga and not bad 
ones. 

Doctors have poor success with 
chronic invalids who are never cheer- 
ful, but the hopeful patient can be 
cured with bread pills. Go to war 
against all worry and fret, by having 
strong confidence in God, and every 

32 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

blow you strike will be in a good 
cause. What if it is raining to-day? 
It will do the crops good, and bring 
down the price of provisions to-mor- 
row. Many a man has committed 
suicide in a dark hour, who would 
have been shouting happy had he 
only waited a week. 

Trust in God is as sure to give rest 
and peace as warmth is to be found 
in sunshine. "Whoso trusteth in the 
Lord, happy is he." The condition 
of the promise is trust in the Lord; 
not in the height of the church stee- 
ple, or in the wife's Church member- 
ship, or in the prayers we are going 
to make after awhile — when we feel 
more like it — but in the Lord. Not 
in the purity of our motives, or in the 
correctness of our intentions. Not 
in divers meats, washings, and obla- 
tions. Not because we have done this 
and have not done that. Not because 
we are a preacher, or a deacon, or an 
elder, or a class-leader, or somebody 
3 33 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

else. Not because we are trying to 
taper oif in sin, and expect to get 
clear out of it after awhile. Not be- 
cause we say prayers by the yard, pay 
tithes of all we possess, and fast twice 
a week. Not because we have crossed 
the sea to become a missionary, and 
are toiling in thankless drudgery 
among a people who can not know 
or appreciate the sacrifices we are 
making. Not because we have given 
up our boats and nets and all else to 
follow the One we thought was going 
to be king — but because we have got 
down to the place where we realize 
that neither our accomplishments, be- 
longings, nor works can do any more 
for us than the dust on the balance, 
and that our only dependence is in 
the word of God. When we get 
there we shall have songs in the night. 



34 



Chapter III. 
THE DOOR WIDE OPEN. 

''He leadeth me beside the still 
waters." The sheep of the Good 
Shepherd are not kept lying down 
in the green pastures. This is only 
the beginning. It is a good begin- 
ning, but there is something better. 
No longer hungry and lean and lost, 
but cared for, feasted, and refreshed; 
eating and drinking at pleasure, and 
having no anxiety about the future; 
having the very best, and enjoying 
it gratefully, A true picture of the 
beginning of Christian life. Con- 
trast it with, "And when he had spent 
all, there arose a mighty famine in 
that land." 

The sheep is on the move beside the 
35 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

still waters. Not lying down there. 
The man who is still tied to that great 
revival they had forty years ago, 
would do well to notice this. The 
man who follows the Good Shepherd 
will not become stiff in the joints 
from standing still. Christian life 
is not a monotonous, uninteresting, 
humdrum state of being, but is full 
of delight, progress, and transforma- 
tion, when it is lived under the guid- 
ance of Him who said: 

'T am come that they might have 
life, and that they might have it more 
abundantly." 

Following Christ is never dull 
work when He is followed close 
enough. Every experience will open 
the door to new experience. One 
green pasture will be succeeded by 
another of a different kind, and so 
with the crystal fountains of still 
water. 

Soon after my conversion, I began 
to circulate the story of it in pamph- 

36 



THE DOOR WIDE OPEN 

let form. One day I received a letter 
containing a dime from an old lady, 
who said she had read the first num- 
ber of my experience, and would like 
to have number two. I was glad she 
expected me to keep on the move. 

Christian journey is a journey. It 
ought to be a glad going on, from 
glory to glory ; but too many seem to 
think it is a going on from cave to 
cave, or from one dark valley to an- 
other. We all know that with too 
many it is a mere standing still in 
idleness. It is talking with those who 
have traveled that makes us want to 
see the world; not with those who 
have never been ten miles from home. 
Talking about the fire that fell from 
heaven forty years ago never warms 
the meeting any, but everybody 
wants to hear about a religious expe- 
rience that is up-to-date. 

Where were you yesterday? Ly- 
ing down in green pastures. Where 
are you to-day? Walking beside the 

37 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

still waters. Good. Where do you 
expect to be to-morrow? Walking 
in the paths of righteousness. No 
wonder this blessed Psalm is still 
fresh and sweet as on the day it was 
first uttered. 

It is the moving Christian who 
keeps the devil moving and makes 
trouble for the principalities and 
powers of evil. There will be no war 
with Amalek until we break camp 
and try to go somewhere. As long 
as we hang around the wells of Elim, 
and keep down our perspiration by 
staying under the cool shade of the 
palm trees, everything will be as calm 
as a Quaker prayer-meeting; but 
when we begin to make daily marches 
toward Canaan there will soon be 
something doing on the skirmish line. 

"The still waters." Here we see 
again how God always gives the best. 
The still waters are the very best. 
The running waters are warm and 
roily and murky, but the still waters 

38 



THE DOOR WIDE OPEN 

are the clear, deep, crystal pools, 
where the thirsty sheep may drink to 
its heart's content, and behold its own 
reflection in the cool depths as it 
does so. 

Sheep require a great deal of 
water, and will go astray for water 
sooner than for pasture. They must 
have water, but in the still waters 
their great need in this respect is 
abundantly provided for. 

''He leadeth me." Not driven, but 
led. In the Holy Land sheep are 
not driven as they are here, but in all 
cases they follow the shepherd. A 
blessed thought in connection with 
this Psalm is that we need never take 
a single step alone, but that we may 
be constantly led by One who knows 
all about us, and all about the way 
we must tread. In this respect the 
Christian has the advantage over 
everj^body else, for though he may 
have to travel much in the dark, he 
does not have to go alone. The man 

39 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

who leaves God out of his plan for 
life, is like a blind man groping his 
way in a country filled with chasms. 
It is only a question of time as to 
when he will fall to his destruction. 

''He restoreth my soul." Notice 
that the Shepherd does it all, and all 
the sheep has to do is take what is 
given, and follow on to something 
better. Its wants are all foreseen 
and provided for by the Shepherd. 
If God were not ready to do the same 
for us, this Psalm would not be in 
the Bible. 

In Palestine the shepherd not only 
looks after his sheep as to pasture 
and water, but he is also its doctor 
and nurse when it is sick or hurt. If 
a bone is broken he sets it, and does 
all he can to restore the sheep to 
health and strength. When a sheep 
is injured it is not knocked in the 
head, as it would be in most places, 
but the shepherd takes care of it and 
saves its life. When the sheep first 

40 



THE DOOR WIDE OPEN 

found itself lying down in the green 
pasture, it may have been too weak 
to stand on its feet. Its fleece may 
have been torn and covered with mud, 
its bones broken, and its flesh bleed- 
ing; but the shepherd dressed its 
wounds and restored it, and it was 
soon strong and able to follow him. 
The word "restore" is a very pre- 
cious one to me. When more than 
forty years old, I w^as converted 
from life-long infidelity, through the 
preaching of D. L. Moody, whom I 
had gone to hear out of curiosity. 
For many years I had been a worker 
against the Bible and Christianity. 
One of my addresses was being cir- 
culated as a liberal tract. As soon 
as God revealed Himself to me — 
which He did in a way so convincing 
that I have never since had even a 
temptation to doubt — I began to be 
greatly troubled over the wasted 
years of my previous life. Indeed, I 
grieved so much about the past as 

41 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

to interfere with present joy and use- 
fulness; but one day as I read my 
Bible I found a promise that seemed 
to have been made especially for me. 
My faith took hold of it and made 
it mine at once; and from that hour 
I have never had one single anxious 
thought about my past life. The 
promise was this : 

"I will restore to you the years 
that the locust hath eaten.'' 

That verse was like a voice from 
heaven to me, and gave me a peace 
about the wasted past that has re- 
mained unbroken from that day to 
this, I do n't know how God is going 
to restore those wasted years for me, 
but I am sure that He will do it. 

"He leadeth me in the paths of 
righteousness for His name's sake." 
The paths of righteousness are paths 
of peace, because they are paths of 
safety. They are paths of righteous- 
ness, because they are right paths in 
which to walk. All other paths are 

42 



THE DOOR WIDE OPEN 

ways of danger, no matter how safe 
they may look. Paths are well-de- 
fined ways of travel, and the paths 
of righteousness are usually well 
marked. So much so that there is no 
danger of losing the way in them. 

I once heard a scholar say that, in 
the original, the words translated 
paths of righteousness mean wagon 
ruts. It puzzled me until I remem- 
bered that the w^agon wheels of Da- 
vid's time were made of wood, and 
were about a foot thick. What a 
splendid path for sheep! Don't be 
afraid of getting too much light on 
the Bible. As well try to dim gold 
by rubbing it. 

''In the paths of righteousness." 
Think of what the sheep might have 
lost by not following the shepherd 
there. Suppose it had taken to the 
woods for itself when it saw a dark- 
looking place ahead; how much of 
the Psalm would have been lost. The 
best thing the sheep could do was to 

43 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

follow, and we can do no better. No 
man can ever find so good a path for 
his feet as the one in which the Lord 
would lead him. When we sing, 
"Where He leads me, I will follow," 
let us mean it and do it. 



44 



Chapter IV. 

A TRANSFORMATION 
SCENE. 

"Yea^ though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death." No- 
tice that the paths of righteousness 
lead straight into the valley of the 
shadow of death, and it is always so. 
The man who steps where the Lord 
tells him to walk, will soon find out 
that he must die to live. If he keeps 
close to the Shepherd in the paths of 
righteousness he will not long have 
to be a sheep. He will reach a place 
where he will not walk after the flesh, 
but after the Spirit; a place where 
love, and not self-interest, will con- 
trol his life; a place where he will 
see God, and die to everything 
selfish; a place where he will know 

45 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

at last that he is wholly the Lord's 
and can say, "Thy will be done in 
earth, as it is in heaven." 

He will be changed as the sacrifice 
on the altar was changed when the 
fire fell upon it from above. He 
will come to where he will have such 
a revelation of the love of Christ that 
the sheep will be changed into a war- 
rior. His own self-will will die, and 
the law of God be written on his 
heart. In the valley of the shadow 
of death his weakness will be changed 
into strength, and his foolishness into 
wisdom. What was a fleece will be- 
come a coat of mail, and he will take 
his place on God's line of battle as 
a warrior. In short, the paths of 
righteousness lead right into the will 
of God, and no Christian is ever 
where he ought to be until he gets 
there. 

It is the usual thing to put the val- 
ley of the shadow of death at the 
end of life ; but that it not where we 

46 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

find it in the Bible. That is not where 
it belongs in Christian experience. It 
belongs right where we find it in this 
Psalm. Right in the middle — but 
that middle is the end of the sheep 
life. That is where Bunyan puts it 
in his "Pilgrim's Progress/' and it 
is where w^e will find it if we faith- 
fully follow the Good Shepherd in 
the path of righteousness. If we do 
this, we shall be certain to find it a 
valley of transformation; a place 
where we shall die to self and be made 
alive to Christ. 

The sheep can only go by sight and 
sense, but the warrior lives and over- 
comes by faith. The sheep can not 
even protect itself, but the warrior 
is able to take his stand on the firing 
line, and with his great shield quench 
all the fierj^ darts of the enemy. The 
sheep is for sacrifice and the warrior 
for service. One cause of weakness 
in the Church to-day is too many 
sheep and not enough warriors; too 

47 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

many who have strayed from the 
paths of righteousness, and have 
missed the valley of the shadow of 
death. 

The Lord's armies do not spring 
from dragon's teeth that have been 
sown, but are made up of trans- 
formed sheep. ISTo sheep can look 
into the face of the Shepherd in the 
valley of the shadow of death and re- 
main a sheep. The look kills the 
sheep and gives life to the warrior. 
No man could see God and live, in 
Old Testament times, and no sheep 
can see the face of the Shepherd in 
the valley of the shadow of death and 
continue to live as a sheep. 

The proof of this is that before 
the valley of the shadow of death is 
reached the talk is all about the shep- 
herd, but in the valley it is to the 
shepherd. No sheep ever talks to the 
shepherd anywhere, but the warrior 
talks to his captain. 

"I will fear no evil: for Thou art 
48 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

with me.'' This is not the voice of a 
sheep. It is the warrior's expression 
of sound confidence. The soul that 
is obedient to the heavenly vision is 
sure to reach the same experience. It 
will not take a very long journey in 
the paths of righteousness to bring 
it to the valley of transformation, 
where the life and character changes. 
It will soon reach a place where the 
green pastures and still waters will 
no longer be wanted, because it has 
come to something so much better. 
The Lord of life is there, and where 
He is, naught else is lacking. No 
pastures are there, and no feast is 
there, because they are not needed. 

When Moses went up into the 
mountain to spend forty days with 
the Lord, he didn't take any pro- 
visions with him, and yet he returned 
with his face shining. The multitude 
that had no bread could not remain 
hungry when they had the Lord of 
the harvest with them. 
4 49 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

For the Christian the old life is 
constantly coming to an end and the 
new life beginning. Paul said, "I 
die daily," which was only another 
way of saying, "I am continually 
growing." In less than an hour after 
a young convert found Christ, he 
said, "I can not stay in the business 
I am now in." 

The paths of righteousness had al- 
ready brought him into the valley of 
the shadow of death. He was dead 
to the old life, and alive to the new. 
He was a warrior, and took a stand 
against what God had told him was 
wrong. 

The godless life of the world be- 
comes intolerable to the true follower 
of Christ. There is war to the knife 
between the new nature and Amalek. 
No laws have to be passed to keep 
grown-up men and women from 
riding sticks and making mud pies. 
The theater and the dance and the 
card table and the saloon have no 

50 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

attraction for the soul that is in com- 
munion with Christ. The very 
thought of such things is gall and 
wormwood to him. Profanity stabs 
him like a knife, and vile thought and 
speech are impossible. He is now in 
the valley of the shadow of death, 
and the old life must perish. 

There is this difference between a 
worldling and a Christian: A Chris- 
tian may sometimes do wrong, but 
never without repenting. Peter de- 
nied his Lord, but afterward had to 
go out and weep bitterly. 

But no matter in what way we look 
at the valley of the shadow of death, 
there are some things about it that 
are very comforting. In the first 
place it is a valley, and a valley al- 
ways has higher ground on the other 
side. Another comforting thing is 
that we shall not have to go through 
it alone, nor make the journey in the 
dark. The Lord Himself is with us, 
and He is our Light and our Salva- 

51 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

tion. No place can ever be dark 
where He is. 

I wiU never forget the first time I 
went through the Lasalle Street tun- 
nel in Chicago on the cable cars. I 
had been through it in the old days, 
when it was dark and dismal, and as 
the car turned to go down into the 
tunnel, I thought : 

"Must we go through that dread- 
ful place?" 

It was a dark, rainy day outside, 
and I thought of how much worse it 
would be in the tunnel ; but, like most 
imaginary troubles, the reality was 
nothing like what I had supposed it 
would be in the tunnel ; but, like most 
the mouth of the tunnel our car 
blazed out with light, turned on auto- 
matically; the walls of the tunnel 
were white and bright, and the place 
which I had feared would be so dis- 
mal was about the brightest spot I 
found in Chicago that day; and it 
will be so in the valley of the shadow 

52 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

of death. There will be no darkness 
there, and no fear. It is never dark 
where there is love and trust. 

''Yea, though I walk through.'' 
We are not going to stay there. It 
is only a stage of the journey; just 
a tunnel on the way; and what mat- 
ter if the tunnel is dark, if all is so 
light and bright inside? We are go- 
ing through the valley, and a pre- 
pared feast will be awaiting us on 
the other side. 

And then, I like that word "walk/' 
There is a volume of comfort in it. 
When I was a boy, and had to pass 
a graveyard after night, I never did 
it on a walk. If I ever broke the 
small boy record for speed it was 
then. But in the valley of the shadow 
of death we are to walk, not run. 
This means no fear and no defeat. 
It is not a stampede in retreat, but a 
march to victory. We are to walk, 
we are not to be carried. We shall 
be alive, and have plenty of strength 

53 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

to sustain us. Lovers walk, but peo- 
ple who are afraid run. And then, 
think with whom we are walking. 
The One who loves us best. I once 
saw a man and his bride go ten miles 
in the caboose of a freight train, and 
they held each other's hands all the 
way, and it was a heavenly journey 
to them. 

"The valley of the shadow." Did 
you notice that it is only the valley 
of the shadow? Not the real thing, 
but just the shadow. This shows that 
it will not be dark there, for shadows 
can only be found where there is 
light. A shadow always means that 
there is a light, and the blacker the 
shadow the brighter the light. 
Haven't you noticed how intensely 
black the shadows are under the elec- 
tric light? How much more so than 
under any weaker light ! The valley 
of the shadow of death is the bright- 
est place we shall ever find this side 

54 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

of heaven, for the Light of the world 
is there. 

A shadow can not harm us. All 
it can do is to frighten us. Shadows 
have no claws or weapons, and this 
is only the shadow of death. If we 
keep close to the Shepherd, all we 
shall ever see of death will be his 
shadow. He may let his shadow fall 
upon us, but he can never touch us 
with his hand, for did not Jesus say, 
''If a man keep My saying, he shall 
never see death?" 

Death has been overcome by Him 
whom we follow, and he will never 
come within reach of His strong 
right arm again. Who would ask 
for a better protector, or for better 
company? We have for our Friend 
and Guide the One who has con- 
quered every enemy that can come 
out against us. Death may have 
once been in control of that valley, 
but it is his no longer. He has been 
overcome in it and driven out of it 

55 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

by the Onfe who leads us now, like a 
lordly friend showing us his posses- 
sions. 

"O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory?" 

It is a great thing to lie down in 
green pastures, but a greater thing 
to walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death with the One whose 
presence and Spirit have changed us 
from a sheep into a warrior. The 
green pastures are the infancy ex- 
perience of the Christian life, and the 
walking without fear is that of its 
manhood. 

And yet the shadow is as real as 
the rod and the staff of the Shepherd 
are real. The shadow of death is 
proof that there is real death, just as 
the shadow of a lion is proof that 
there is a lion; but we have nothing 
to fear, because we follow Him who 
is mighty to save and strong to de- 
liver. The deliverance that comes to 
us through Christ is deliverance from 

56 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

a deadly thing, and is a great deliv- 
erance. If He were not there with 
us in the valley of the shadow of 
death, life there would be impossible. 
The great thing, therefore, is to be 
identified with Him, knowing that 
He is abundantly able to protect us 
anywhere and everywhere. 

''Thy rod and Thy staff, they com- 
fort me." Notice that the comfort 
and the security are because of what 
the Shepherd is, and is able to do, 
and not because of anything we can 
do for ourselves. He does it all, and 
the comfort is from Him all the way 
through. "Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed 
on Thee: because he trusteth in 
Thee." 

It is in what Jesus is and does that 
we have the foundation for our peace. 
There is no hope in anything we have 
done or can do for ourselves^ He is 
the propitiation for our sins; He is 

57 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

our righteousness ; He is our redemp- 
tion money; He is our strength and 
our Redeemer, He is everything 
that God's law requires of us, and 
in this we find our rest and comfort. 

The sheep is helpless and defense- 
less; but it knows what the rod and 
the staff in the shepherd's hand can 
do, for it has seen its worst enemies 
destroyed by them. 

The conventional shepherd's crook 
with which we are so familiar, is a 
poetic fancy that never had any re- 
ality. A shepherd with no better de- 
fense than that would not long have 
the confidence of his sheep. A rod 
of that kind is only fit to be decked 
with ribbons and hung up in a parlor, 
or be knitted and beaded into fancy 
work. Such a rod would be a poor 
defense in a battle with mice, and it 
is not with any such flimsy thing that 
the Palestine shepherd defends his 
flock. 

58 



A TRANSFORMATION SCENE 

If that poor toy were all we could 
look to for protection in the valley 
of the shadow of death, our comfort 
would be small indeed. I have seen 
the shepherd's weapons, and they are 
much better adapted for real warfare 
than the graceful but frail crook of 
story and picture. The rod is an im- 
mense war-club, big enough to brain 
a lion, and the staif is the rough limb 
of a tree, six feet long, and as thick 
as a man's forearm. No wonder 
there was comfort in the sight of 
them. 

There is always comfort in know- 
ing that we are well protected. There 
is comfort in having a good bolt on 
the door when you are sleeping in a 
strange house. There is comfort in 
knowing that the bridge your train 
must cross is a good one. There is 
comfort in having a good bed in a 
fireproof hotel. There is comfort in 
going to sea in a strong ship, and 

59 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

there is comfort to the soldier know- 
ing that his side has the best guns and 
the most men. And there is comfort 
in the valley of the shadow of death 
in knowing that we have nothing to 
fear there. 



60 



Chapter V. 
A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN. 

''Thou preparest a table before me 
in the presence of mine enemies." 
Here is another evidence that the 
sheep has been changed into a war- 
rior, for there is a decided change 
in the figure, and the language is no 
longer suited to the sheep experience, 
any more than baby talk would be 
to a Herbert Spencer. A sheep 
knows nothing about a table. What 
it understands is pasture. Give it 
plenty of grass and water, and it is 
in heaven. You have done all you 
can for it, for it has no more capacity. 

And then a sheep has no enemies, 
for it never fights. If dogs or wolves 

61 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

set upon it, it stands helpless. It 
makes no resistance. A sheep before 
her shearers is dumb. I have been 
told that you can take a knife and 
cut into the flesh of a sheep and it 
will not move a muscle. 

It is only those who are able to 
resist, who have enemies to contest 
the ground with them. The fact that 
enemies are found at the far end of 
the valley is proof that the valley of 
the shadow of death does not mean 
the death that comes at the end of 
life, for no one will admit for a mo- 
ment that we are to have enemies in 
heaven. 

But the Christian warrior has ene- 
mies. Whole battalions of them. 
Against him are principalities and 
powers, and he must battle against 
the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, and against spiritual wicked- 
ness in high places. He comes out 
of the valley of the shadow of death 
to take his place on God's line of bat- 

62 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

tie; but if he is faithful he will be 
feasted there. He will have plenty 
of war, but there will not be any 
shortage of provisions. Meals are al- 
ways served with promptness and 
regularity at the front. 

The Christian, who has leanness in 
his soul, shows where he is by the con- 
dition he is in. Let him go to the 
front, and he may delight his soul in 
fatness. There is abundance for the 
fighter, but nothing for the straggler 
and deserter. The true soldier of the 
cross, who is in his place at the front, 
is always being feasted. The Lord 
has a way of making the desert blos- 
som as the rose for him; of filling a 
barren land with milk and honey, 
and of raining bread from heaven. 
When our Master put the devil to 
flight after His long temptation, 
angels came and ministered unto 
Him. In the wars of God, battles 
and banquets go together. 

And so, if we find ourselves feel- 
63 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

ing as the prodigal did in the far 
country, it means that we are too far 
from where the fighting is going on. 
We must get up to where the darts 
are flying and the trumpets are 
sounding, if we would have a good 
time and live on the old corn of the 
land. 

It was because Lazarus had passed 
through the valley of the shadow of 
death that the Jews wanted to kill 
him. But you notice that he did n't 
run. He didn't try to hide in the 
timber. What did he do? He sat at 
the table with the Lord who had 
raised him from the dead. No won- 
der the Jews could n't frighten him. 

There is some sweet comfort in 
that word ''prepare." We prepare 
for our friends when they are coming 
to see us. We prepare good things 
for those we love, and we prepare the 
very things we know they like the 
best. Jesus said: 'Tn My Father's 
house are many mansions: I go to 

64 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

prepare a place for you." Think of 
what a place it will be when infinite 
love and infinite wisdom and infinite 
power have prepared it. 

I am so glad that I shall not have 
to prepare an eternal habitation for 
myself, for I am certain it would be 
an eternal disappointment. I have 
had some experience in preparing 
homes for myself, and I know how 
impossible it is for any one to build 
a house that will long please him. A 
very little experience in house-build- 
ing will show any man how little he 
knows about himself. There is no 
such thing as lying down in green 
pastures there. 

The builder of a new house will 
hardly get into it before he will be 
sadly disappointed in its plan. He 
wdll see at once how much better he 
might do if he could only try again. 
He will find some very important 
things that have been overlooked, 
and some useless ones that have been 
5 65 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

put in. The reason for this general 
disappointment in home building is 
that people grow and houses do not. 
The man who is building to-day is 
ignorant of what he will be after 
awhile, and so can not provide for his 
own growth. But the Lord knows all 
about what we shall be in the ages to 
come, and in preparing our heavenly 
home for us, everything we are to 
become will be considered and pro- 
vided for. 

"Thou preparest a table.'' Think 
of what the feast will be when it is 
prepared for us by the One who loves 
us best, and the One who knows us 
best. If my wife had the purse of a 
millionaire, I would much rather have 
her prepare a feast for me than to 
have the millionaire do it, for she 
knows me and loves me as the mil- 
lionaire does not. 

And then notice where the feast is 
to be prepared. ''In the presence of 
mine enemies." The most difficult 

66 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

place in which a feast could be served. 
Well, if the Lord can feast me there, 
certainly it will be safe to trust Him 
to supply my wants everywhere else. 
The enemy will not have guns enough 
to interfere with that feast. He may 
rant and roar, and make a great show 
of wrath and war, but he will not be 
able to prevent that feast. He will 
have to suffer the mortification of 
seeing me feasted without being able 
to lift a finger to disturb my enjoy- 
ment. Certainly that is better than 
lying down in green pastures. 

''Thou anointest my head with oil." 
Another proof that there has been a 
transformation in character, for the 
sheep's head is never anointed with 
oil. Kings and princes are anointed, 
but sheep never; so that the real 
meaning of these w^ords is that there 
has been a promotion. The warrior 
has been made a prince — a prince 
with God. First put on the line of 
battle and made a victor there, and 

67 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

now promoted there. This is miles 
and miles beyond the green pastures 
and still waters with which he started, 
and now he has got to where his bless- 
ings come in cloudbursts. Listen: 

"My cup runneth over!" 

What more could the Lord do? 
Made a very artesian well of blessing. 
''The water that I shall give him shall 
be in him a well of water, springing 
up into everlasting life." The man 
who has no joy in his religion has a 
big leak in his faith somewhere. 
Made a fountain of blessing to 
others, for there will be no waste of 
the overflow. He who said, ''Gather 
up the fragments, that nothing be 
wasted," will see to that. The Lord 
never allows any good thing to go to 
waste anywhere. Not even a sun- 
beam is permitted to throw itself 
away. For ages before men came to 
live in this world, the sun was pour- 
ing its heat and light down upon it, 
but God did not suffer a ray of it to 

68 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

be lost. It was stored away in coal 
and wood to give comfort and cheer 
in our homes now, and it is the same 
with spiritual blessing. 

Wherever there is an overflowing 
cup, other vessels are being filled 
from the overflow. And certainly 
this ought to be the normal experi- 
ence of every Christian. "Springing 
up into everlasting life/' A well of 
water, mind you, and a flowing well, 
too; not a cistern, with a wheezy 
pump that squeaks in a way to put 
the teeth on edge, and which always 
has to be primed before you can get 
anything out of it. If this Psalm 
does n't tell us what Christian expe- 
rience should be, it does n't tell us 
anything. If it does n't tell us what 
we may be and enjoy, it is simply an 
exaggeration. 

"A well of water, springing up 
into everlasting life." There is suc- 
cessful irrigation for you, and much 

69 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

better, too, than that of the Nile ; for 
that depends upon the weather above, 
but this does not, for it is an over- 
flowing fountain. Why, even in the 
orange country of California they 
have no such abundance as this. 
There is no overflow. The man on 
the next place never gets any such 
abounding benefit from you. The 
water is turned on barely strong 
enough to reach the far end of the 
row and then seep away. There is 
no water to spare for the parched 
and thirsty soil on the other side of 
the fence. 

Too many of us are that way in 
our religious life. We are not a foun- 
tain of blessing to anybody else, for 
whatever we get we keep. Getting 
and giving is the Lord's way, and 
getting to keep is man's way. The 
man who tried to keep his bread in 
the wilderness found that it bred 
worms, and it always does that in 
religious life. But the overflowing 

70 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

cup ! There 's freshness for you. 
Never anything stale about that. 

In going from San Francisco to 
Portland, Oregon, the tourist passes 
Mt, Shasta spring, where the finest 
water in the world is bursting out of 
the rock in a great cascade, and where 
the train stops a few minutes, that 
whosoever will, may go to the water 
and drink. 

There are always those on the 
train who have drunk from that 
fountain before, and are longing to 
do so again ; and they have been giv- 
ing their testimony so heartily that 
everybody is alive with expectation, 
and the moment the train stops the 
people rush out pellmell, as if they 
feared the supply would be exhausted 
before their turn came; and there is 
the water, pouring out in a stream 
that would turn a hundred mills, and 
bursting out of the rock in a great 
geyser sixty feet high; and what a 
draught of pure delight it is ! 

71 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

No one has ever tasted such water 
before, and never will again, unless 
he goes back to drink from that same 
spring. The traveler will never be 
thirsty again without thinking of that 
wonderful fountain, and the taste of 
that pure, cold, crystal water will 
haunt him as long as he lives. A re- 
ligious experience somewhat like that 
is meant by the overflowing cup — 
only a thousand times better; for in 
spiritual life you carry the fountain 
with you, and refresh others as Mt. 
Shasta spring does the thirsty tourist. 

"My cup runneth over.'' Notice 
whose cup it is. It belongs to the 
man who began in a sheep's place by 
saying, "The Lord is my Shepherd." 
He has gone on step by step, taking 
degree after degree in the blessed life 
until he has reached this place of 
overflowing blessing. Notice also 
that neither the size nor quality of 
the cup enters into the question. It 
will make no difl^erence whether the 

72 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

vessel is small or large, or whether 
it is clay or gold. The result will be 
the same, no matter what the vessel 
is. It will be made to run over by 
that never-failing fountain. 

Just as every disciple was filled 
with the Spirit on the day of Pente- 
cost, so may every one who knows 
Christ be filled now, no matter 
whether he is great or humble, or 
whether he has one talent or ten. The 
overflowing cup is for every child of 
God who gets into the paths of 
righteousness and stays there. 

"My cup runneth over." If that 
does n't mean a heaven to go to 
heaven in, it is impossible to make 
language mean anything. Get a 
man to that place in his spiritual life, 
and going to church with a long face 
will be impossible. Only get him 
there, and he will be too busy in think- 
ing and talking about the goodness 
of God to notice the faults of his 
neighbors, or think of counting the 

73 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

hypocrites in the Church. He will 
not spend all his time in figuring out 
how much he can save, but will be 
wanting to know how much he can 
give. Get him there, and his life 
will begin to be like a watered garden 
at once, and every lukewarm disciple 
who comes near him will begin to 
feel ashamed of himself. 

Let the Sunday-school teacher get 
a flowing well experience, and he will 
not have to offer breastpins and 
badges to keep his class full, and he 
will not have to talk extra loud to 
get attention either. Let the preacher 
begin to carry the well around with 
him, and he will not find it a hard 
grind to get up his sermons, and his 
congregation will not go to sleep 
while he is preaching them. Let ten 
people in any Church become arte- 
sian wells, and a revival is bound to 
come that will shake the town, for ten 
such people would have saved Sodom. 

How are we to get this overflowing 
74 



A FEAST AND A FOUNTAIN 

experience? By doing just as David 
did. By definitely taking the Lord 
to be our Leader and Manager, and 
then following Him straight on 
through the valley of the shadow of 
death. But that is where the trouble 
lies. We are all willing enough to 
have the green pastures and still 
waters, but when we come in sight of 
the dark entrance to the valley of the 
shadow of death, we stop right there 
and stampede. It ought to be just 
as easy to trust the Shepherd in the 
valley of death as it is in the green 
pastures ; but results seem to indicate 
that it is not. The sight of the place 
makes us tremble with fear, and we 
forget that the Shepherd with His 
rod and staff is abundantly able to 
protect us there. 



75 



Chapter VI. 

A GLORIOUS VIEW. 

The Bible makes it clear that it is 
the privilege of the Christian to ap- 
propriate God by definite faith when- 
ever he has a conscious need. The 
wide range of meaning in the Bible 
names for God certainly emphasizes 
this. ''The Lord is my strength," is 
a sight draft already filled out for 
the child of God who knows himself 
to be weak, and "The Lord is my 
light" is the same for the man in the 
dark. The man who is providentially 
in a low place may say, "The Lord 
is my high tower," and at once be 
lifted high enough to know that all 
things are working together for his 
good. And the man who fails in 

76 



A GLORIOUS VIEW 

everything he undertakes may say, 
"The Lord is my Shepherd/' and be 
led straight on the paths of right- 
eousness, as David was. 

When we once get the Lord for 
our beginning, we may have Him in 
an all-sufScient way all the way 
through life. The more we trust 
Him to-day the easier it will be to 
trust Him to-morrow. Doubts are 
Amalekites, against which we must 
wage a bitter w^ar of extermination 
if we would enjoy undisputed posses- 
sion of our inheritance in the land 
flowing with milk and honey. It is 
onty when our faith is mixed with 
doubt that w^e can be anxious about 
what is to come. A blessed thing 
about life in Christ is, that we may 
not only have peace in the beginning, 
but all the way through. 

But as David, with a shining face, 
tells of his overflowing cup and gush- 
ing Vv^ell experience, perhaps some 
ready-to-halt doubter may say: 

77 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

"Yes, you are indeed at high tide 
now, but it is a great deal too good 
to last; and what will you do when 
your spring dries up and your cup is 
empty again?" 

But David knows that it will last, 
and cries out with no uncertain 
sound : 

"Surely goodness and mercy shall 
follow me all the days of my life." 

Goodness and mercy have followed 
him so long and so well that he knows 
they can never be turned back now. 
Long before he reached the sublime 
degree of the overflowing cup he had 
said his last good-bye to a doubt, and 
would never renew the acquaintance 
again. 

"But suppose you backslide, Da- 
vid?" 

"I will dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever!" comes back with the 
ring of a true Damascus blade. 

A black old aunty, with shining 
face and sunny heart, was trudging 

78 



A GLORIOUS VIEW 

along with a heavy basket of clothes 
on her head, singing merrily, when a 
dismal-looking man accosted her 
with: 

"S'pozen yo' git wha' yo' kaint 
wash no mo', an' haf to go to de poo' 
house, yo' won't sing like dat." 

"Go 'way wid dem s'pozens!" was 
her reply. ''Dem s'pozens is what 
meks all de trubble in dis wo'ld, an' 
I ain't gwine to hab nufSn to do wid 
'em nudder, I ain't. De Lo'd is my 
Shep'd, an' I sh'U not want!" and 
with that she passed on, singing 
louder than before. 

And so David would have treated 
every insinuation of a doubt, and so 
should every one who would keep the 
peace of God in his heart. If good- 
ness and mercy have followed us all 
our lives — and we know that they 
have — what stronger evidence could 
we have that they will keep on doing 
so? When we would know what the 
Lord is going to do, we have only to 

79 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

remember what He has done. The 
man who could say, "This poor man 
cried, and the Lord heard him, and 
saved him out of all his troubles," 
knew without any uncertainty that 
it would always be impossible for any 
kind of a trouble to trouble him long. 

In the first green pasture stage of 
Christian life, a doubt of God's con- 
tinual faithfulness may possibly get 
a foothold in our hearts; but by the 
time the overflowing cup is reached, 
such a thing is unthinkable. It is 
then no harder to count upon the 
Lord's constant presence and help 
than to expect the sun to shine to- 
morrow. 

David knew that goodness and 
mercy would follow him all the days 
of his life, because he had forever 
settled the question as to where he 
was going to walk. When he 
planted his feet in the paths of right- 
eousness he never intended to travel 
anywhere else. His face was set like 

80 



A GLORIOUS VIEW 

a flint to the front, and he was de- 
termined to go straight on to the end. 
Backsliding would be less common if 
it were not more than half expected 
from the beginning. The man who 
says good-bye to the devil in a way 
that means good-bye forever, will not 
find him turning up again at every 
crossroad. Starting for heaven on a 
merry-go-round is not the way to 
make sure of a mansion above. 

A wealthy young woman joined 
the Salvation Army. She had her 
best gowns carefully packed and put 
away, because she thought it would 
be so nice to have them if she should 
happen to leave the Army. Of 
course we all know about what kind 
of a soldier she proved herself to be, 
after planning for desertion from the 
beginning. But not so David. 
When he said, ''The Lord is my 
Shepherd," it didn't mean that he 
was going to experiment with the 
Lord for a month or two, as is some- 
6 81 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

times the case with those who join the 
Church without knowing anything 
about conversion. That was never 
David's way in anything. When he 
once put his hand to the plow, it was 
with the determination that he would 
go straight on to the end of the fur- 
row; and this is why he made a suc- 
cess of everything he ever undertook, 
from using the sling to ruling a king- 
dom. 

The platform of David's religious 
life was: "I will bless the Lord at all 
times: His praise shall continually 
be in my mouth. My soul shall make 
her boast in the Lord: the humble 
shall hear thereof, and be glad." 

He intended to fence all the 
ground he stepped on, and to farm 
all he fenced, by letting everybody 
know where he stood. Getting re- 
ligion, and keeping so still about it 
that nobody will ever suspect we 
have it, may be a shade better than 
not getting it at all, but it is a poor 

82 



A GLORIOUS VIEW 

way to get much good out of it or 
to do much good with it. It may be 
set down as more than half true that 
the religion that is ashamed of itself 
generally dies young. 

But David gave up the crooked 
path business on the day he began to 
walk in the paths of righteousness, 
and it was because of this that he had 
such strong assurance that he would 
dwell in the house of the Lord for- 
ever. He was positive that he had 
taken up his permanent abode there, 
for he had said a last farewell to the 
tents of wickedness, and had cut the 
bridges behind him by saying, ''The 
Lord is my Shepherd." He had 
stopped trying to be his own keeper, 
and with the Lord for his Shepherd 
there was no doubt about what the 
final outcome would be. 

"Surely goodness and mercy shall 
follow me all the days of my life," 
is the triumphant song of faith. 
The good days and the bad days. 

83 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

The bright days and the dark days. 
It is safe to count on goodness and 
mercy, whether we have any money 
in the bank or not. The days when 
we feel shouting happy, and the days 
when we feel like going to the juniper 
tree. The days when we can run and 
not be weary, and the days when even 
the grasshopper is a burden. This is 
a sure cure for all fret and worry 
about what may happen after awhile. 
It is the blessed assurance that God 
will never give us up. 

Think of it when the sound of the 
grinding is low, and little feet are 
still. Think of it when there is 
crape on the door, and remember it 
when there is no bread in the house. 
When friends forsake you, remem- 
ber that Goodness and Mercy are 
still with you. When you know 
not what to do, or which way to turn, 
do not forget that Goodness and 
Mercy are to be with you always. 
No matter what happens, count upon 

84 



A GLORIOUS VIEW 

God's presence and help, and you will 
not reckon in vain. But do n't 
spend much time in looking back and 
lamenting the past, but trust God's 
goodness and mercy to take care of it* 

"I will dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever," because God's good- 
ness and mercy do follow me. They 
guard me on every side like a body- 
guard of angels, and I will be safe 
because God is my safety, David 
could end by saying this, because he 
began by saying, "The Lord is my 
Shepherd." 

The conclusion is inevitable that 
God wants us to have a definite faith 
that will appropriate Him, and thus 
obtain for ourselves the help He will 
so freely give. The weakest of His 
children have as much right to say, 
''The Lord is my Shepherd," as 
David had, and if the word shepherd 
does not fully cover his need, he has 
a child's right to choose for himself 
one that will. 

85 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

I have never been a shepherd, as 
David was, and the word can not 
mean to me all that it meant to him; 
but there are other words that seem 
to fit my case, and this Psalm tells 
me that I may use them if I have the 
faith to do it, and He who said, 
"According to thy faith be it unto 
thee,'' will honor my draft. 

There is the word Manager, for 
instance. It means much to me be- 
cause I have had a manager to man- 
age me, and have also been a 
manager myself. I know what a 
manager has to do and be. I also 
know how impossible it is for me to 
manage myself in my Christian life, 
or to manage for myself in all things, 
and so I turn all my cares and anx- 
ieties, my burdens and my perplex- 
ities, over to Him who loves me best, 
by saying, "The Lord is my Man- 
ager," and when I do it I am also 
able to say with complete assurance, 
"I shall not want;" for I know it is 

.86 



A GLORIOUS VIEW 

the business of a manager to take 
care of those whose movements he 
controls, and all I have to do is to 
trust and obey. Here are a few 
promises which make it clear that I 
do not misplace my trust. 

"I will instruct thee and teach thee 
in the way which thou shalt go; I 
will guide thee with Mine eye." 

Isn't that saying, "I will man- 
age thee,'' as plainly as words can 
say it? 

"And behold, thine ears shall hear 
a word behind thee saying. This is 
the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn 
to the right hand, and when ye turn 
to the left." 

"Commit thy way unto the Lord; 
trust also in Him; and He shall bring 
it to pass." 

"I will go before thee and make 
the crooked places straight [just 
what a manager has to do] ; I will 
break in pieces the gates of brass, 
and cut in sunder the bars of iron." 

87 



LIFTING THE LATCH 

I have not been able to find a 
single caution or warning in the Bible 
against trusting God too much; and 
as long as He honors the drafts our 
faith makes Him, why should we not 
keep on drawing? "Ask largely, 
that your joy may be full." 

" If our faith were but more simple, 

We should take Him at His word ; 
And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the sweetness of our Lord." 

LOFC. 



88 



NOTES. 

V^henever there is trust, there is rest. 

Whatever our faith says God is, He will be. 

When trust begins in the right way, it will 
never end. 

The scene opens in the desert, and closes in 
the Father's house. 

The Psalm begins with definite trust, and ends 
with blessed assurance. 

When our faith and our need speak together, 
God always hears and answers. 

"All the days of my life," takes in the bad days 
as well as the good ones. 

So long as we are pouring out, the Lord will 
not fail to pour in. 

"I shall not want" can never be said without 
first saying, "The Lord is my Shepherd." 

Before we can have the Lord for our Shepherd, 
we must be willing to take the place of a sheep. 

When the Shepherd is leading His sheep away 
from one pasture, they are on their way to another. 

The valley of the shadow of death first leads to 
the battlefield, and then to the Father's house. 

The day on which David said, " The Lord is my 
Shepherd," was a better day for him than the one 
on which he could say, " I am king." 

89 



NOTES 

When the Shepherd has been followed in the 
valley of the shadow of death, it will not be hard to 
follow Him anywhere else. 

We have as much right to appropriate God in a 
finite way as David had. 

Pasture and water are all right for sheep, but 
what the warrior most wants is his Father's house. 

"According to your faith be it unto you,'* is a 
letter of credit that is still good. 

If the Lord will give green pastures and still 
waters to His sheep, is there any good thing He 
will not give to His child ? 

David said, " The Lord iS my Shepherd." The 
Lord said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know 
them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them 
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any man pluck them out of My hand.'* 

Through the door of faith is the way into that 
Hand. 



90 



Mk 23 \90r 



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